The present invention generally relates to safety equipment, and more particularly, to a vertical enclosure safety apparatus.
Existing vertical enclosures, for example, man holes with a ladder system, include concrete slabs with port holes. The slabs are placed at intervals to catch a workman should he/she slip and fall. One reason for falling is that the slabs can trap noxious gases that overwhelm the workman while descending into the man hole. When falling onto a lower slab, a workman may be knocked unconscious or killed. Sometimes, the prone workman comes to a rest out of the line of sight of the port hole. During rescue of a workman, a lifeline may be tied to the workman so that he/she is pulled up. When the body is out of line of sight, raising of the workman may perilously encounter the unyielding concrete slabs from underneath with little visual guidance.
As can be seen, there is a need for an apparatus that can allow a prone person to be lifted out of an enclosure safely. There is also a need for an apparatus that can adaptively be retrofit into an existing enclosure. Additionally, it can be seen that a need exists for an apparatus that mitigates the trapping of noxious gases in an enclosure.